a caliper formed of two pieces sliding across one another, one having a graduated scale and the other a vernier.
Also called vernier micrometer.
Origin
1875-80
vernier caliper in Science
vernier caliper
(vûr'nē-ər) A measuring instrument consisting of an L-shaped frame with a linear scale along its longer arm and an L-shaped sliding attachment with a vernier scale, used to read directly the dimension of an object represented by the separation between the inner or outer edges of the two shorter arms.